Last week, three of the five US soldiers accused of raping a 14 year-old Iraqi girl and killing her and her family in 2006 in Mahmoudiya, pleaded guilty or were found guilty by US military courts.

I know what some of you are thinking. A portion of you are thinking about the “horrors of war”. You’re thinking about the way war can change a person, desensitize him to violence, pain, or anguish. And you may believe that these soldiers had their minds twisted by war and were pushed beyond the realm of humanity. But if you think that because of any hardship they experienced, their crimes are somehow understandable or forgivable, you are deeply mistaken.


When I got back from Iraq, I found myself answering a lot of questions- it was 2005 and people were beginning to sour on the war. Of all the questions I got, the one that drove me crazy was when someone would ask me what I thought about the Abu Ghraib prison scandal, because often this question would be prefaced by some kind of disclaimer about how horrible war is and then a virtual pardon for the convicted soldiers. Torture and humiliation are un-American and not in keeping with the values of the US military. Those convicted at Abu Ghraib were war criminals, and deserved every punishment they received, period.

In 2004, Abu Ghraib was all over the news as I prepared to deploy. But beyond the embarrassment of being in the same military as the convicted soldiers of Abu Ghraib, I knew their actions carried huge political and strategic implications that would affect the war I was about to join.

One day in the spring of 2004, [Marine] Maj. Gen. James Mattis was walking out of a mess hall in Al Asad…when he saw a knot of his troops intently hunched over a television, watching a cable news show. “What’s going on?” Mattis asked. It was, he learned, the revelations about Abu Ghraib, along with sickening photos of cruelty and humiliation.

A 19-year-old lance corporal glanced up from the television and told the general “Some assholes have just lost the war for us.” [Fiasco by Thomas Ricks p. 290]

In court last week, one of the soldiers convicted in the Mahmoudiya rape/murder was Army Pvt. Jesse Spielman. After his conviction was announced, “Spielman’s sister, Paige Gerlach, screamed: ‘I hate the government. You people put him [in Iraq], and now, this happened.’” [Army Times]

Wrong again. Every American must understand that neither the Army, the country of Iraq, nor war itself compelled Pvt. Spielman to help three other soldiers rape and burn a little girl.

I don’t know these soldiers, their backgrounds, psychological problems, or criminal records, but I don’t care to find out. Nor do I have any intention of comparing the hardships of my experience in war to theirs- I don’t need to. Hundreds of thousands of soldiers have fought year after year in this war and in longer, bloodier wars, under equal or greater duress, and have exceeded the high standards of honor that our armed services demand.

I’m seething with anger and shame, and every American should be. War can be a debilitating experience and I have many friends who have been permanently changed by it. But being a veteran doesn’t excuse such acts. For their crimes alone, these men should hang. But from a strategic perspective, they’ve done more to lose the war for us than a brigade of suicide bombers ever could.

Further Reading: Army Times NY Times